Barcelona midfielder, Rafinha Alcantara has expressed his satisfaction with Inter Milan and wants to make his switch permanent in the summer. The Serie A outfit have a clause in the Brazilian’s contract to buy him for €35m after this season and it is likely that the move will fall through judging by the statements passed by the central midfielder.
Rafinha was quoted, “Of course, that’s what I want. I did not come here thinking that I will recover my form and go back to Barcelona. I want to stay here, then all else will depend on Inter. Apart from [Spalletti’s] football preparation, I like people like him who tell you things to your face. We had already spoken on the phone when I was still in Barcelona. He knows that I can play in all positions in midfield, but also in attack.”
Rafinha has struggled to feature for the La Liga giants mostly due to his stints on the sidelines with a knee injury but also due to the favoured roles of Ivan Rakitic, Andrés Iniesta and Sergio Busquets. He has found a home in the San Siro and has featured in the last 5 league games, starting the last one against relegation riddled Benevento last weekend.
Rafinha is a technically adept head around the centre circle who can appear both as a holding midfielder as well as a more offensive presence. He is a creative spark who can beat defenders on the dribble while at the same time pick out his teammates in threatening positions.
He is the brother of Bayern Munich and Spain midfielder, Thiago Alcantara and did choose to play for the Spanish national team’s U16, U17 and U19 side. But later Rafinha opted to switch over to the country of his birth – Brazil and has been capped 2 times for the senior side.
Inter started off the season remarkably with their star forward, Mauro Icardi firing on all cylinders. It looked like they were finally well poised to stop Juventus’ title-winning streak along with Napoli.
However, they have failed to uphold their own standards and have suffered a huge dip in their form over the December period. The Black and Blues have suffered an 8-match winless streak before the 2-1 win over Bologna earlier this month and were on the losing end of a 2-0 match against Genoa.
A gap of 15 points have opened up between them and league leaders, Napoli and the team are in dire need of restrengthening to address their inconsistency issues. Luciano Spalletti will be eager to sign up Rafinha who is also more than happy to keep playing for them. So it might be a tough battle for Barcelona to hold on to their prized possession after his loan spell is over.
